Edge of Forever (First Revision)
The Center for Advanced Space Travel and Research, or CASTaR, stopped receiving transmissions from the Spirit of Laika over eight years ago. The ship’s mission was to analyze odd readings near a black hole closer to the center of the Milky Way galaxy on the same arm in which the Sol system resided. The hope for Spirit of Laika was that coming into closer proximity with the celestial abyss would yield readings that had more usable data than the ones that were able to reach Earth and her children.
The mission, at first, was heralded as a success. The closer the ship got to the black hole, the more and more frequencies their scanners were able to pick up. It was guessed that even miniscule space dust interfered with the transmission of the higher-energy wavelengths and eventually degraded completely before instruments on Earth, no matter how sensitive, were able to pick them up.
The odd thing about these readings, or at least the oddities that were able to be detected by Earth and the other inner planets, was that they seemed to be organized. There were waves with waves inside, like radio carrier waves containing audio or visual data on earth, but they didn’t correspond to any communication protocol that was recognized at the time. Some people, of course, speculated that this was evidence of intelligent life, or perhaps that the black hole was an endpoint of an Einstein-Rosen bridge through which transmissions were exiting. In any case, it was unlike anything expected from one of these dark pits of space, and humans were naturally curious about it.
SPIRIT OF LAIKA MISSION DAYS ELAPSED: 343
Mephy, short for Mephistopheles, a rather bleak nickname chosen by the crew for the black hole, loomed in the distance. The black, cosmic blotch they saw was just the diameter of the event horizon, not the hole itself. The accretion disk and resulting distortions gave the pit a sickening appearance, but no one could pinpoint what exactly made them feel that way. Rasmussen underestimated the effect that the visual would have on the crew. Everyone seemed a little more on edge and over the last several weeks, even Rasmussen was feeling more anxious and eager to head back home. The readings were complete, however, and they were preparing for their return voyage.
From what Lieutenant Commander Holmes was able to decipher about the strange radiation coming from the black hole, there were definite laws in play that humans had no theory for. It was impossible to say if it was from an intelligent form of life, but Holmes said that he was sure that it was not, barring some extradimensional life form that was undetectable otherwise.
The ship’s AI did detect some correlation between the radiation patterns and some theoretical work that was in the process of being developed back in Sol. It was relatively certain that this would help tie up some loose ends on a few doctoral theses, and perhaps even lead to several advancements in warp theory. None of this could be verified immediately by the crew since the science team was almost entirely theoretical physicists, not applied physicists, and the engineering team was selected for their knowledge in ship construction and applied sciences to help keep the ship running. The AI’s generated report about the potential benefits was convincing, even though it was a smaller payoff than what was hoped for. Still, things could change once they were able to deliver the information back to Sol.
The trip, physically, had been better than anticipated so far. Grey goo consumption was lower than projected and the ships AI was able to make some on-the-fly adjustments to their warp field that ended up saving them almost sixty days travel time. Hopefully it would be able to do the same or better on the way back. All in all, it felt successful. In about a year the crew would be back home. Captain Rasmussen missed her dog more than anyone, but she was sure he would have passed at this point. Almost 8 years sped by on Earth since she left. The gentle German Shepherd had gone to live with her mom when she packed up to leave. It made her heart ache to think about it, and her vision blurred.
“Are you ok?” She heard XO Danyl ask.
She wiped her eyes quickly, but didn’t attempt to hide her emotion. “I miss my dog.” She replied honestly.
Danyl looked down and swallowed. “I miss mine too.”
SPIRIT OF LAIKA MISSION DAYS ELAPSED: 346
“We would have to move into the gravity well.” Science officer Remus said. “Not far, but it would require us to warp out, which may take the QCB a little longer to calculate a jump. Projections show maybe half an hour instead of a minute or two.”
“The time required to calculate a jump scales almost quadratically with the amount of gravity the ship is experiencing.” Holmes added. “I’ve never seen it go above an hour, even theoretically.”
Rasmussen nodded. “And you’re sure you can get the remaining readings if we move to that point.”
Remus exhaled slowly. “No, not 100%, but right now all my readings indicate that at that distance, the additional resolution would be enough to complete the scans to a point where the data would be usable.”
“Would you bet the ship on it?” Danyl asked. He was bouncing his leg up and down under the table, but was otherwise still.
Everyone was silent for a moment. Finally, Remus replied. “That decision is above my pay grade, sir.”
Danyl raised his eyebrow, then turned to Rasmussen.
“He’s not wrong.” Rasmussen said. She sighed and turned to the officer at the helm, Anya. “Take us in.” Then turned to Remus. “Get the scans as quickly as possible. Verify them,” she turned back to Anya. “And then you get us out of here.”
Anya and Remus both nodded. “Yes, sir.”
“Dismissed.” Rasmussen said.
The bridge officers, save Danyl, left the conference room and returned to their stations on the bridge. Rasmussen rubbed her eyes.
“Really want the readings that badly?” Danyl asked.
“That’s the whole point of the mission, isn’t it?” Rasmussen replied.
Danyl nodded slowly. “I suppose it is.”
SPIRIT OF LAIKA MISSION DAYS ELAPSED: 347
Anya let out an exasperated sigh from the helm station. “What the FUCK?”
Danyl shot Anya a sharp look, but the captain raised a hand slightly to let him know she would handle it.
“What’s wrong, lieutenant?” Rasmussen asked.
Anya tried to compose herself, but her anger still blazed in her bright blue eyes. “I’m sorry, captain,” Anya shook her head. “I can’t get the computer to plot the jump. I’ve tried everything. Every time I input the coordinates or the heading, it plots a completely random jump solution with an unstable warp field, and the diagnostic doesn’t catch it. It’s just spitting out random jump solutions and the computer doesn’t see anything wrong with them. If it wasn’t required that I check the solution before jump, we’d probably be dead.”
The rest of the bridge crew looked at the captain. Rasmussen thought for a moment. “So… You’re saying we can’t plot a jump?”
Anya blinked, and slowly shook her head. “No.”
Rasmussens adrenal gland emptied at once and her stomach sank. She tried to measure her breathing.
“Can you have the conventional computer calculate it?” Danyl asked.
The lieutenant scoffed, “Yeah if you have a few years. The QCB’s main purpose is jump calculations, the conventional computer just isn’t meant for that kind of calculation. It’s like comparing a Chinese abacus to a pocket terminal.”
Danyl looked down, then at Rasmussen. “We… we were able to approach the hole and come this close because we anticipated warping out. If we can’t plot a jump, then-”
“I know.” Rasmussen’s stomach knotted further as she racked her brain for a solution. “Remus, run a diagnostic on the QCB.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Remus replied.
“Anya, run diagnostics on the navigational subsystems.”
Anya nodded.
“We could just be dealing with a bad core in the QCB.”
The minutes ticked by when Remus’ station finally chimed. “It says… “ he trailed off. “Ummm… It…”
“Spit it out, lieutenant.”
“I… It says it’s not functional at all. Every test failed.”
“How’s that possible? Why are we just finding out now?” Rasmussen asked.
“I’m checking the logs.” Holmes said. After a few moments he continued. “It shows that the QCB stopped functioning, or rather, it stopped giving reliable outputs as soon as we approached Mephy. But… It was still outputting data, just data that was gibberish. It’s still functioning, technically, it’s just not making any sense. I’m not sure why the automatic diagnostics wouldn’t catch this.”
“The diagnostic computer didn’t register that something was wrong?” Danyl asked.
Holmes shook his head. “No. A quantum computer has literally never failed in this way before, not to my knowledge, at least. The diagnostic and conventional computers aren’t intelligent like the systems on the QCB. They can only do exactly what they’re programmed to do, so if this wasn’t an anticipated failure mode, then it wouldn’t have been able to recognize it as a problem. But something feels wrong about that explanation. I can’t imagine that being the case.” Holmes stared down at the screen at his station then mumbled to himself, “There’s something else going on…”
“And the engines can’t get us out of the gravity well?” Danyl asked.
Anya looked down and shook her head. “Not where we’re at now, no.”
Rasmussen heard Remus mumble to himself. “I’ve killed us.”
“Remus!” She barked at him, hoping to snap him out of whatever stupor he was in. She continued like she didn’t hear him. “I need to work with Holmes to figure out what can be done with the engines to get us out of this hole. They only need to last long enough to get us out of the well. We can warp the rest of the way home and get a tow from where we end up.”
Yes, sir.” He said flatly.
“Holmes,” Rasmussen said. “Give me some good news.”
Holmes was staring into nowhere. After a few moments he swallowed and finally said, “We’re stuck.”
IMPENDING HOPE LAUNCHED 941 DAYS AFTER LOSS OF CONTACT WITH SPIRIT OF LAIKA
IMPENDING HOPE MISSION DAYS ELAPSED: 390
Captain Fredricks sat at the head of the conference table in the meeting room directly off the bridge of the Impending Hope. “Alright, everyone. I know y’all’ve heard this a hundred times now but protocol’s protocol. We all know the Spirit of Laika. Eastern European Space Agency’s pride and joy. First to go visit the Hole. Haven’t heard anything in over eight years now, I guess sixteen years or so for Earth at this point. We’ll be arriving next week. Our job is to find out what happened, get the readings they were originally supposed to get, then bug out. Now I don’t know about you guys, but I do have a special place in my heart for the mysterious and the macabre. When it comes to black holes, however, fuck ‘em. We get in and get out, whatever happened to the Spirit of Laika ain’t happ’ning to us. Got it? No risks, no heroes, just answers and extraction. I can’t imagine what happened to those poor bastards out there but if we find ‘em, and we can do so safely, we bring ‘em home. They’re our brothers and sisters on that boat, and as far as I’m concerned, just as deserving of hero’s funeral as any one of us would be. I know there’s some people that don’t feel the same and I’ll say it again like I do every time. If we’re gonna have a problem, you tell me now, because if I find out when it’s inconvenient, I’m gonna be a hell of a lot more pissed off than if you just told me now.” He eyed everyone at the table for a solid few seconds.
Williams, first officer and comms. Just like his name implied, solid officer, reliable, not flashy or much of a personality while he was on duty, just a stand-up guy. Impressive career. Not a prodigy, just impressive. A few notches above average at everything. As far as Fredricks was concerned, every ship needed one of those high up in the command structure somewhere, just maybe not captain.
Hartwell, tactical. The youngest of the bridge officers, a firecracker with a few disciplinary issues earlier in her career, but she seemed to have figured herself out over the last decade or so. Still, she did have an enthusiasm that was hard to find after people were in the service for longer than five years or so. Usually, it just started to become a job to most people, but Hartwell still saw it as something else. Fredricks wasn’t sure what, but he was glad to have her on his bridge.
Morrison, navigation. A funny guy. Ladies’ man if the rumors were true. Fredricks was the least sure if he liked Morrison. He’d been reliable so far and followed orders quickly and efficiently. Sometimes that’s all you need. You didn’t have to want to share a beer with your entire crew, you just needed them to be a good crew. Fredricks appreciated him in a professional manner, nothing more.
Salguero, chief engineer. She might be one of the smartest people Fredricks had ever met. No matter what problem came up on a ship she had a solution before anyone else did. After his last command, he made sure to have her transferred with him. They had a good working relationship and as far as he was concerned, a captain’s connection with engineering was the most difficult to get right, and when you do get it right, you keep it that way. He’d used up a few favors keeping her, but he was sure it was worth it.
To be honest, he didn’t think anyone at the table actually had a problem with helping a foreign space agency, but he heard secondhand that a few people on the ship still harbored old grudges even decades after the world came together. To be honest, he was surprised it was younger officers and enlisted members of the crew that held more resentment. Usually it was the grey-hairs that tried to hold on to “the way things used to be.” Old dogs and new tricks or something like that. All he hoped to do was make sure his feelings were filtered down to the rest of the crew. Make the few crew that were prejudiced feel like outsiders, in that regard at least, and keep their toxicity in that area from spreading.
“Alright, dismissed.”
IMPENDING HOPE MISSION DAYS ELAPSED: 395
“Warp field is stable. Aaaaaaand…” Morrison trailed off. The ship jolted slightly and the viewscreens turned on. Stars appeared. “We’re here.” Morrison finished his thought.
The black hole wasn’t in view yet, they jumped farther away than the Spirit of Laika had just as a precaution. The Spirit of Laika had sent out several messages during their voyage and after they arrived at the Hole via an entanglement messaging system, but Fredricks was taking no chances. “How’s everything look, Hartwell?” Fredricks squinted one eye at the viewscreen, even though it didn’t make a difference. Old habits.
“Totally normal so far. Sensors aren’t picking up anything yet but it’s still early. Give it a few minutes.”
“Roger that.” Fredricks said. “Williams, any sort-“
“Yep,” the first officer said. “I have some sort of beacon. It looks like it’s coming from… It’s a probe.”
“A probe?” Fredricks asked.
“Yes, but… It’s traveling very slowly. In fact, it looks like it will come to a stop in about an hour. After that it will fall into the black hole unless it activates thrusters.”
“Jesus…” Fredricks leaned forward. “They fell in…”
Salguero squinted skeptically. “An hour or so before we showed up? That’s a hell of a coincidence.”
Fredricks glanced over at her then back at the screen. “You’re right. Don’t like that.”
“But they may not be beyond the event horizon, just past where their engines can push them out.”
“God…” Morrison hung his head. “I can’t imagine.”
“Yeah.” Salguero agreed. “It’s very fishy timing.”
“And I don’t believe in coincidences like that.” Fredricks said.
Hartwell nodded slowly looking at the view screen. Nothing was there to see, but it felt like if she stared long enough something would appear.
Fredricks leaned back and slapped the arms of his chair, signaling that he made a decision and was about to tell them. “Launch a SAR drone. Mount an advanced sensor suite to one of the hardpoints and bring me that probe. Get as many readings as you can while you’re nearest the location where they would have fallen in.”
“Roger that, I’ll send the order to engineering now.” Salguero replied, tapping at her screen.
“What the hell happened to you guys…” Fredricks pressed his fingertips together and leaned forward again.
The bridge crew was mostly silent over the next few minutes, Morrison and Hartwell exchanged comments about the ships status and speculated on what could have happened to the Spirit of Laika. Salguero was silent, but Fredricks could see the wheels spinning in her head. After a while Fredricks asked, “Salguero, what are you thinking?”
She huffed. “Nothing that makes any sense. I can’t make heads or tails out of it, sir.”
Fredricks grunted.
“Same.” She added.
IMPENDING HOPE MISSION DAYS ELAPSED: 395
“Alright, receiving telemetry from the drone, control is transferred to the helm.” Hartwell threw the drone’s camera view onto the viewscreen. A tiny spec was in the middle of the screen blocking out a couple stars. It took Fredricks nearly a solid minute to see it, and only then because it was growing as the drone floated closer. “Is that their probe?”
“Yes, sir.” Hartwell replied.
Salguero stood up and took a few steps forward. She crossed her arms, frowning. Fredricks heard her mumble. That made him uneasy. If Salguero couldn’t figure out what was going on, they could have problems.
Salguero turned around to face him. “The Spirit of Laika transmitted messages after they arrived here and didn’t indicate that anything was wrong.”
Fredricks nodded.
“Then we show up right after they fall into their… I guess I’ll call it their engine’s event horizon, the point where they can’t get out. Something also must have prevented them from warping out. And that something wasn’t anticipated by them or, even weirder, their computer.” She was pacing now. Fredricks allowed her to pace as much as she wanted if it was helping her think through this conundrum. “They had the most advanced computer system available on their ship at the time. We all share AI tech, so they had something similar to what we have now. It should have projected a problem. But it didn’t…” She sat down on the ground, crossed her legs, and rested her head in her hands. It was a strange sight, especially right in the middle of the bridge. But again, Fredricks had learned over the years if you “let a thinker think the way they like to think, they have better thoughts.” So even though people were staring at Salguero, then at him, and back at Salguero, he let it go and silently dismissed the abnormal behavior with a wave of his hand.
“They moved in closer expecting to warp away, but something prevented them from doing it. I don’t think the gravity at that distance would affect the warp field, and it would be equalized mostly anyway, even though the gravitational force differential would be higher…” she fell backward and was lying face up in the middle of the floor now, talking to no one in particular, and waving her hands in the air. “It wouldn’t have been enough to collapse the field. So there must have been another-“ her hands froze.
Fredricks held his breath expectantly. Salguero shot upright. “The computer.”
“What about it?” Fredricks asked.
She turned to look at him. “It’s a quantum computer and works probabilistically. That by itself is fine, but something may have broken down in the foam…” her eyes darted back and forth as if there was a table with equations in front of her. “In the more intense gravitational field of the black hole the quantum foam could have been behaving differently. Our computers weren’t designed to operate at those densities, it wouldn’t have been detected in diagnostics because according to the computer it would be behaving normally for the substrate that it’s in. The effect may cancel itself out when being analyzed by itself.”
Fredricks squinted, and judging that Salguero had gotten through the useful bit of thinking, asked for clarification. “What?”
Salguero took a breath, the first one he’d seen her take in a minute. “Quantum foam is basically the idea that at a quantum level, matter is blinking in and out of existence randomly. In space that is more dense, like the space in a strong gravitational field, like, way stronger than we’ve ever been in proximity to-“
“Like near a black hole?” Morrison asked.
“Exactly.” The engineer pointed toward him. “That, in theory, could increase the frequency of these particles jumping in and out of existence and cause the computer to behave in a way we can’t predict. It would be possible that the conventional computers and other mechanics of the ship would function normally, since they don’t operate at the quantum scale, but the QCB would not function normally, but it wouldn’t realize it because it’s like deep sea diving.”
Williams and Fredricks exchanged glances, that last bit lost them.
“The pressure equalizes, and you can still function fine in deep water, but you’re doing it a bit differently, and you can’t interact with normal pressures until you reacclimate. So, the computer is in a deep, more dense area of quantum foam. It’s functioning consistently, but not predictably to us. It’s not a perfect analogy but it works in my head. Anyway, there’s another variable changing that we can’t account for, or don’t know how to right now since we’ve never been in this environment before. Or rather, the QCB hasn’t, so it’s never been tested.” Salguero was talking a mile a minute, but Fredricks was catching on. Or so he thought.
“I see…” Fredricks stared at the screen. “That would make sense. So, they got closer for some reason, thinking they could still warp out, but then when they went to plot a jump solution, the computer just couldn’t do it.”
“Or it did, but the output was gibberish to them and the rest of the ship’s systems.” Salguero added.
“Fuck me…” Hartwell muttered.
“Me too.” Fredricks said. He thought for a moment. “How close is the drone?” He asked Hartwell.
“Almost there, less than half an hour.” Hartwell replied.
“Good.” Fredricks drummed his finger on the arm of his chair, staring intently at the screen. After another twenty minutes, the probe came into view. As it grew closer, it looked to be in bad condition. Micrometeorite strikes pocked the armor plating, but it looked to be mostly intact. The drone reached out and grasped the probe’s exposed hardpoints. “Got it.” Hartwell confirmed.
“I thought they just launched it. Why’s it look so beat up?” Fredricks asked.
“Don’t know… That’s weird though. I’d expect the gravity here would pull in more space trash but still, just a few hours doesn’t seem like long enough for it to accumulate that much wear.”
“Well, get it back here so we can have a look at it. We’ll have the engineers check it out.” Fredricks said.
“Yessir.” Hartwell replied.
IMPENDING HOPE MISSION DAYS ELAPSED: 395
Warnings popped up all over the bridge control screens and sensor alarms sounded. It didn’t seem to be anything wrong with the ship at first glance, but everyone jumped to their consoles to examine what was going on.
“Radiation spike near the black hole.” Salguero reported. “Something just put out a massive amount of radiation, but I…”
Fredricks waited for her to continue. He could see her hands beginning to tremble above her screen. His stomach sank. “Talk to me, Salguero.”
She turned her face toward him. She looked like she had just seen a ghost. “That was the Spirit of Laika’s core going critical.” Or perhaps forty-eight ghosts.
He looked at the main view screen. There was a tiny bright spot where there didn’t used to be. About twice as bright and big as the brightest star, but quickly shrinking again. “How’s that possible?”
“That’s another coincidence…” Morrison mumbled. Fredricks glanced at him, then back at the viewscreen while he rubbed his hands together.
“Get the data off that probe as soon as it’s back. We need to figure out what the fuck is going on. I’m going to prepare a message to send back to Sol. Let me know when the drone’s back.” With that, he stood up and left the bridge, heading to his quarters.
IMPENDING HOPE MISSION DAYS ELAPSED: 395
Fredricks’ comm chimed. “Sir, it’s Hartwell. We have the probe back.”
“Thank you, lieutenant. Where is it?”
“Bay 2.”
“I’ll be right there.”
As Fredricks made his way to Bay 2, his stomach started knotting up again. Something felt off. Unnatural. He’d faced tough situations, life threatening even, but this wasn’t the same. Events weren’t taking place as expected. No one expected to show up and practically see the Spirit of Laika literally explode. He thought that maybe they would find a derelict ship with bodies on board, or, more likely, nothing at all. But this was a mystery, bordering on the macabre. It was as if an entity trapped the ship and used it as a lure for their vessel, and when they arrived, cruelly dangled the prize in front of them before crushing it in its maw.
Bay 2 doors slid open in front of him, and he strode in. Salguero was already there with a team of engineers inspecting the drone.
“Report.” He said.
“It looks like it’s been out there a long time. A lot of radiation damage to the hull, stress fractures on the engine mounts and what seems to be a lot more engine cycles on it than what it was designed for. That’s all just a preliminary glance from a diagnostic pull though. We’ll know more shortly.” Salguero paused for a moment.
“What is it?” Fredricks prompted.
She hesitated. “Well, it doesn’t inherently seem nefarious, but it’s been modified with way more computer storage than it was originally designed to have. I can’t think of why it would have that unless they expected the ship to be destroyed and this was their last-ditch-attempt to get the data away before it happened.”
“But that doesn’t explain why the probe’s been used for so long and we literally just saw the ship explode.”
“No, it doesn’t.” Salguero agreed.
“Unless the ship was destroyed a long time ago and the gravity from the…” Fredricks stopped when she looked at him like she already knew what he was going to say.
“I checked. The gravity at their last location may have caused the readings from their ship to be delayed, but only by a few minutes, including relativistic effects. That’s a massive gravity pull, don’t get me wrong, but not enough to cause that much of a delay. Even if our readings were wrong somehow and they were farther in, it would be pretty weird for us to arrive at the perfect time to see it happen.”
Fredricks furrowed his brow. “I see. Yeah, I’d have to agree. Uncanny timing.”
Salguero looked at the probe. “Can I speak frankly?”
“Please do.” Fredricks said.
She hesitated again. “I don’t understand what’s happening here. At all. I have some wild guesses, not ones I want to share yet, but this all feels off, and I’m not used to having no clue. I don’t even know what I’m trying to say other than I have a bad feeling about all this.”
“Have you checked our QCB functionality?” He asked, trying to get her mind on something more concrete and easier to think about, but he was genuinely concerned about it as well.
“Oh yeah. I did that as soon as you left the bridge. It’s all functioning normally, and I checked the output myself, and some of it by hand. It’s all consistent with what we would expect.”
That made him feel better than he expected it to. “Good. Well, then we can still jump out of here.”
“If my shot-in-the-dark theory was right about that. I honestly have no idea if that’s what happened.” Salguero admitted.
“Well, me either, but that’ll be our working theory for now. It sounded good to me at least.” He assured her.
“Right…” She didn’t sound convinced.
“Lieutenant, I have something.” One of the engineers reported.
“What is it?” Salguero asked, walking over to his station. Fredricks followed her.
“It looks like daily logs of ship activity. There are over five thousand ship activity logs and every single one except for the first are exactly the same length. Just over eight hours each. They’re also all almost the exact same file size except for some of the earlier ones that get larger as you go back chronologically, but not by a lot. There’s also another directory here that appears to be records of massive amounts of conventional computer calculations. The file sizes aren’t huge but the number of them are staggering. There’s also a progress record file that seems to indicate it was about ninety-three percent complete with something. Maybe a scan it was performing. We don’t know yet.”
Salguero pursed her lips and thought for a moment. “Run all the files of the same type through their own pattern recognition protocol. Let the computer do it automatically first then we can look at the results and figure out what to do after the first run.”
The engineer nodded. “Yes, sir.”
Fredricks raised an eyebrow. “Leave you to it for now?”
Salguero shrugged. “I guess so.”
Fredricks turned to leave but stopped, then turned back.
“Meet me in Bay 3 in ten minutes.” Fredricks told her.
“Sir?” Salguero looked puzzled.
“Just…” He waived his hands in a motion indicating it would make sense when she got there.
“Yes, sir.” She replied, still puzzled.
Salguero sat on the bench behind the main console in Bay 3. She turned on a single light in the middle of the room that shone down onto the steel-grey floor, leaving the corners in relative darkness. After a few minutes the door slid open and Fredricks strolled in with a bottle of brown liquid and two glasses. She huffed through her nose and tried not to grin.
“Alright, alright, try not to piss yourself with excitement.” Fredricks joked.
“I’ll try not to, sir.” Salguero said.
“Speak frankly for the next hour or so. No more ‘sir’.”
“Yes- um, ok.”
“That’s better.” He grunted as he sat down. He placed the glasses on the bench between them and poured about an inch of the liquid into them. It smelled strong. Then he pulled two fat cigars out of his pocket, already unwrapped, and cut, and handed her one.
“Sir, the smoke detec-“
His looked at her suddenly. “Then turn ‘em off miss chief engineer. Just set ‘em to turn back on in a couple hours. There’s nothing in here to catch fire anyway. And I told you, no ‘sir’ for the next hour.”
She blinked. He motioned toward the console in front of them. “I already told Williams I wasn’t to be disturbed for the next hour unless it’s an emergency.”
She stood up and tapped at the console for a moment. “Alright, detectors will turn back on in two hours, and the air will do a full cycle in an hour and a half.”
“Good…” He said as he lit his cigar, then held out the lighter to her when she sat down. She leaned in to light her cigar then sat back, puffing on it to get it started.
“Holy shit…” She said.
“Feel better now?”
She nodded. “I haven’t had one of these in a hot minute.”
“Ha! Me either. Almost forgot how good they tasted. I was going to save them for the return trip, but it felt like this was as good a time as any.”
They sat in silence for a couple minutes when Fredricks spoke up again. “I know you probably already know this, but I haven’t taken the time to actually say it. You’re the best damn engineer I’ve ever had.”
She opened her mouth to reply but he continued. “And that stands regardless of what happens here.” He turned to face her as he said the last bit.
She thought for a moment. “Thank you.”
“Mmm.” Fredricks nodded and took a sip of the whiskey. He inhaled through his teeth after swallowing. “I know there will come a day when you’ll get promoted and I’ll lose you, and that’ll be the best and worst day of my career. I’ll raise a glass to it in any case.” They tapped their glasses together and both took a drink.
“You know,” Fredricks continued. “Maybe I shouldn’t tell you this, but I’m uneasy about all this myself. Now that I say that out loud, it seems obvious. Anyway, I never even imagined a situation like this in my wildest dreams. I can’t expect more out of anyone else than I’d expect out of myself. I do know that if everyone does their best, I’ll be content with whatever happens.”
Salguero thought for a moment. “I can understand that.”
“I have no reason to believe our fate will be like the Laika’s, so I wouldn’t worry about that.”
Salguero said nothing. After another minute or so, Fredricks asked, “Is there something bothering you that you haven’t told me?”
The engineer took another sip and a few more puffs of the cigar. “No, not that I can put into words right now anyway. I just have a bad feeling is all. I don’t know if it’s because we did something wrong or if something will go wrong soon, it’s just a bad feeling.”
The captain nodded slowly. “Being in a weird-ass situation does that. It’s normal. I would expect everyone to have a bad feeling right now. Just understand that’s all it is, a feeling. It isn’t evidence for anything.” He was trying to speak her language, in hopes it would get through to her better. “In fact, all the evidence so far points to us completing the mission as intended and getting back home just fine. We got here in one piece, there’s nothing indicating that our return trip won’t be the same.”
Salguero turned to look at him. “Except for what happened to the Laika.”
“That’s fair, but we don’t know what happened on that ship, we do know they got a hell of a lot closer to that hole than we are, so there’s that.”
“There is that.” Salguero agreed.
They sat in silence until the cigars were stubs, and the contents of the bottle had decreased a significant amount. Both enjoyed the other’s quiet company. Finally, Fredricks slapped his knees. “Welp, I’m going to do some reading. You turn in early. Watch some videos or read a book. You have the rest of the day. I checked on the engineers before I came in and they said the analysis probably won’t be done ‘til late tonight anyway. Staying on duty just to wait isn’t going to make a difference.”
Salguero sighed. “Yeah.”
The captain stood up, collected his glasses and the bottle, and walked slowly to the door. He turned before he exited and gave an understanding half-smile, then left.
IMPENDING HOPE MISSION DAYS ELAPSED: 396
“Alright,” Fredricks said with his hands folded in front of him. The bridge crew were gathered around the conference table with the lights dimming. The main screen at the end of the room turned on, displaying the first frame of a video. It was eerie how similar the room displayed on the screen was to the one they were sitting in now. It was almost like looking into a mirror, but slightly deflected to a parallel universe.
“Let’s see what we can see.” Fredricks leaned back and stared at the screen.
Williams began the playback.
“Alright, Holmes, please walk us through the theory.” Rasmussen said. As she said it, she glanced at the recorder.
SPIRIT OF LAIKA MISSION DAYS ELAPSED: 352
Holmes was staring down at the table. “We think that some parameter of space-time that we don’t understand right now has changed in the proximity of the black hole. It may be because of the increased density of the gravitational field, or it could be some unanticipated variable associated with Hawking radiation, we don’t really know. We do know that the QCB is not functioning in a predictable manner, which makes it useless. We do know that self-diagnostics, the ones that work, don’t find anything wrong, and neither do the conventional computer-based diagnostics. So, there is something that is affecting the output in a way that is somehow consistent with its proper functioning, but not in a way that is consistent and predictable. I don’t know how that’s possible, but obviously, it is. This is why I think it has something to do with the dense gravitational field. This would allow the computer to function normally for the quantum substrate that it’s in, just not in a way that we can decode. This results in an inability to plot a jump solution away from the black hole. To be honest though, the theory is just a stab in the dark. What we do know is we’re stuck.” He looked at captain Rasmussen.
She cleared her throat. “That brings me to a very unfortunate circumstance that I think it is only right that, as captain, I share.” Her lips quivered for a moment, then she cleared her throat again and continued. “Lieutenant Remus was found dead in his quarters this morning. It was, what we believe to be a suicide. We believe the reason this happened is the fact that-“ her voice broke and she took a moment to compose herself. “Lieutenant Remus suggested that we move closer to the hole to gather the additional readings to make the trip as valuable as we hoped.” She took another deep breath. “I am taking this opportunity to officially enter into the record that no one on board this ship blamed him for this situation. We were all convinced there was little additional risk, assuming the QCB would be able to plot a jump solution away from Meph-, from the black hole. It is apparent he blamed himself and used that as a reason to take his own life. He was an excellent, bright officer and I was happy to have served with him.”
Everyone around the table nodded in affirmation. Rasmussen spoke again, “Mr. Holmes, please continue.”
Holmes nodded. “When we realized the QCB was not functional, we were initially going to try to overdrive the engines in a single burn to try to escape the gravity well. Unfortunately, we were unable to get that solution to work. After that, we decided to have the conventional computer estimate how long it would take for it to calculate a stable jump solution in any direction away from the black hole. The answer it gave was a little over eight hours. Shortly after, it was discovered that a jump solution in any direction other than parallel to the gravitational acceleration due to the black hole would result in destruction of the ship, due to the directionality of the dense gravitational field. After exploring how to have the conventional computer calculate a jump solution given the new parallel requirement, we found that due to the probabilistic calculations required to produce a warp field that the conventional computer would have to account for many of these variables by employing a Monte Carlo type analysis. While the conventional computer could calculate a random jump solution in eight hours, it is unable to plot a specific jump solution due to the probabilistic calculations required. This, theoretically, would work if the variables that the conventional computer couldn’t account for behaved consistently based on unknown criteria. Once enough samples were collected, the data could be used to establish a trend and guide the computer to a reliable jump solution much more quickly.”
“We ran a few of these Monte Carlo type sample jump solutions and projected that the computer would need to calculate anywhere between six and seven thousand samples to establish a reliable trend, and then another thousand or so samples to get to a precise enough solution to safely jump the ship away from the black hole. As the mathematicians among you have already noted, this means the computer would need nearly three thousand days, optimistically, to calculate a jump.”
He paused for a moment. “The Spirit of Laika is equipped for a total of twelve hundred days. It was enough for a trip here and back, relative time, and nearly a year of observation, if required.” Holmes glanced at the captain, then at Anya, who was staring into her folded hands resting on the table. He took a deep breath and continued. “We also found that the conventional computer can coordinate a reactive warp field when linked with the gravitational sensors on the ship. This means that in the dense gravitational field of the black hole, the computer can produce a warp jump of sorts that basically only counters the gravity of the black hole. The stronger the gravity is, the stronger that warp field is and the greater the space density differential of the field. Normally this would mean higher speeds, but in this case with the gravity of the black hole, we would just sit still.”
“Now comes the theoretical bit that you may not believe at first. I’m not sure if I believe it myself, but it’s the only shot we have at this point of ever getting home. Imagine a world that is completely flat, like a sheet of paper. The inhabitants of this world are called Flatlanders, and they can only move left and right, forward, and backward. They have no concept of up and down, or depth. They can only see the edges of other Flatlanders, not their faces or bodies.”
“Now suppose we visit this Flatland with our ship. We can hover above their world and observe them, but they cannot see us. We are invisible to them because we exist in a higher dimension. But what if we wanted to communicate with them? How could we do that?”
“One way would be to lower a finger through their plane of existence. To a Flatlander, it would appear as a circle that suddenly pops into existence, grows larger, then shrinks and disappears. They would have no idea that it is part of a larger object that extends into another dimension.”
“It’s my theory that the third dimension that causes changes in the shape of the intersecting object is a Flatlander’s perception of time. That is to say, time is only a geometric property of an n dimension world in an n-1 dimensional world. To us, time exists because the fourth dimension is flowing constantly through our three dimensions. In the fourth, time could be measured and moved around just like we could move things up and down through the Flatlander’s two-dimensional world. We can also pass multiple objects through the two-dimensional world in different directions and at different speeds. This would help explain why time dilates in extreme gravitational fields.”
Anya shook her head slowly in the background, but Holmes didn’t see.
“Warp drive functions because space-time is bent around the ship and distorts the flow of this fourth dimension through our three, negating the time dilation effect almost completely. But suppose we used warp drive the same way in every aspect except we didn’t move geometrically in our three dimensions. Where would that negative time dilation effect go? I believe it would give us enough change in momentum in the fourth dimension, or time, to reverse our direction, at least for a brief period. But, to take full advantage of this and propel ourselves over eight hours backward in the fourth dimension, we would have to create an extremely strong warp field.” He looked at Rasmussen, who nodded to continue. “One that would require the ship’s warp core to go critical to feed enough energy, only momentarily, to overload the warp field generation system. If successful, this would propel the ship back through the fourth dimension before the core’s destruction. This would only be a localized distortion, meaning everything else would progress normally, and only our ship would be pushed back in the fourth dimension. Unfortunately, we can’t push ourselves back far enough to escape being trapped here, so we’re calculating the required parameters to jump us back just over eight hours, the time required for the computer to complete one Monte Carlo run. The reason for this is the shorter the jump, the more likely it will succeed due to less calculation and correction needed during the forth-dimensional push.”
“Assuming all this works the way the theory indicates, that would mean any calculations and events that had taken place on the ship would then be gone. That defeats the entire purpose of sending the ship back to begin with. The second part of our plan is to launch a probe right before causing the warp core to go critical and when it can still escape the gravitational pull of the black hole.” It was obvious Holmes was avoiding the phrase “back in time.” Perhaps to maintain whatever shred of credibility the theory had to begin with.
“The probe will be launched just fast enough to reach zero velocity halfway through the traveling-back process. Once the ship reaches the target point in the fourth dimension, the probe will have fallen back to the ship at the original location in three dimensions. This process should take less than two hours for the ship to be pushed back. The information that has been loaded onto the probe from the previous jumps will be transferred to the ship to continue the Monte Carlo-type analysis. The computer on board the ship will run through another test set during these eight hours and re-launch the probe before traveling back again. After we launch the probe, gravitational density will be so great, that we will no longer be able to communicate with the outside world and once we start traveling backward in the forth dimension, no wavelengths hitting the ships sensors will make any sense whatsoever.”
“We don’t know if the probe will survive the entire duration needed to make and store all the calculation records, but our engineers are giving it their best shot as we speak. Additional armor, data storage, and engine reinforcement are being added. The survival of the probe and communication with it are imperative for the successful jump at the end of each loop that propels the ship back. The telemetry data sent to the ship by the probe will help correct any error the ships computer can’t compensate for during the warp field generation, which there likely will be a significant amount with the intensity of the gravitational field and lack of probabilistic computational power.”
“Another dataset we are adding to the probe is the storage of all ship’s activity logs. We don’t know if this data will be needed later for passible corrections, but we are storing it just in case. In order to save space, the ship’s computer is only going to record a full set of data for the first run, and then record only deviations of the data after that. I would expect the data to change less and less, given we will be repeating the same eight hours for quite some time.”
“This process will begin in an hour, and we are about to enter the coordinates in three dimensions that we will be returning to at beginning of each loop.” Holmes stopped for what seemed like an eternity.
“The ship has been programmed to carry out this process automatically, and a specific set of command codes known to me, the captain, and Lieutenant Anya must be entered to break the loop. In the event of one of our deaths, those respective codes will no longer be required. When the computer has determined it can reliably calculate a jump away from the black hole, it will calculate the jump during one loop, and execute it at the beginning of the next so that we are farthest way from the hole when we jump.”
“This is the current situation and our plan to return home. We don’t know if it will work, we don’t know if the theory is correct, and we don’t know if the QCB isn’t functioning for the reason we think, but this is our best shot.”
“This recording is for us for future reference, for lack of a better term, or for anyone else that happens to find the probe if the ship is already destroyed. Hopefully if, for some reason, the automated sequence is interrupted, this recording should convince us to continue the process until a jump solution has been reliably calculated. Since the warp field-induced fourth dimensional push is a localized phenomenon, a current star chart is included in the probe’s data banks so that it can be compared to the stars whenever this video is replayed. Time can’t be reliably recorded by us, for obvious reasons, so this is the simplest, most fool-proof way possible to prove to ourselves that this process has been happening.”
“Have I forgotten anything?” Holmes turned to his captain.
“Thank you, Mr. Holmes. If that isn’t all, it will have to do. I’ll send this recording to the engineers to load onto the probe.” Rasmussen turned to look directly into the recorder. “Please, to myself, that could be watching this later, and to my crew, if you have come to a different conclusion for any reason, please, be careful.” She turned back to look at her crew. “We’ll be ok.”
The recording ended.
IMPENDING HOPE MISSION DAYS ELAPSED: 398
Fredricks didn’t speak. The silence was deafening until Fredricks turned to his engineer. “Salguero?” he asked, knowingly.
She was staring down at the table. The captain saw a tear splash onto the surface below her face. “We caught the probe right before their fourth dimensional push. They launched it before falling too close to the event horizon, so it used as little fuel as possible. Once we picked it up, it couldn’t transmit the telemetry data for their computer to make corrections to the warp field. Even if they knew we were here, they wouldn’t have been able to get a transmission to us while they were that close to the event horizon. Their plan was working…”
When she looked up, tears were in her eyes, and she confirmed what Fredricks hoped she wouldn’t.
“We killed them.”